Retired teacher faces eviction home - Senior can't get her pension

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A retired teacher is on the brink of being evicted from where she lives after trying to get her pension for the past three years.

Pauline* told THE STAR that since 2015, she has submitted all the required documents that were needed to get her pension but has not received anything yet.

“The Ministry of Education had my file and then it was sent to UCJ (University Council of Jamaica) and they kept it for a year and then they sent it to the council (Jamaica Teaching Council) and that is where it was for a while,” she said.

Forced to leave the house she once called home for many years, Pauline is unhappy with the way she has been treated after 37 years of service.

She said that there are days she goes to bed hungry because she has nothing to eat.

A mother of four, the 60-year-old said she tries not to burden her children because they have their own lives and they help when they can.

She blamed the Education Ministry for her predicament.

HAVE TO PAY

“They are saying that they don’t have any bearer to take the file from there (Jamaica Teaching Council) back to the MOE (Ministry of Education). Within that period of time, I am about to be kicked out of the house that I have lived in. I also have bills that I have to pay,” she said.

Pauline, who suffers from depression and stomach problems, has been unable to buy her medication. She said she uses the money from children to buy food.

“I am almost living on the street and I still don’t know what is happening to my file. The house that I am living in, I owe a year's rent and that is why I got this document to say that I should come out by the 31st (yesterday),” she said.

Pauline told THE STAR that she spent 19 years at the primary level, before returning to school and getting a bachelor's degree. She then went on to teach in the secondary school system for 17 years.

“When I ask about what is happening with my papers, one person said it is to come back to the region and the other person say it is to go back to the head office in Kingston so I don’t know what is happening to it,” she said.

She added that she has reached out to the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), however, they offered no help to her.

“I went to the JTA last Wednesday and I could not get any information from them. I have been a member for many years. The president said that he can’t do anything to help me,” she said.